Subscribe to this blog

Follow by Email

Andrew Greeley’s Chicago Catholics -- Sightings

The Roman Catholic Church in America is an interesting institution. It seems to be getting more and more conservative, especially as seen in pronouncements of its bishops on issues such as abortion. It is also getting more ethnically diverse. Even as White Catholics seem to be exiting, their ranks are being taken more and more by Latinos. Consider this statistic from Putnam and Campbell's American Grace -- 58% of Catholics between the ages 18 and 34 are Latino. If it weren't for Hispanic immigration, the Roman Catholic Church would be in a position similar to Mainline Protestantism (American Grace, pp. 300ff). One of the most interesting interpreters of Roman Catholicism over the years has been Andrew Greeley, a Catholic priest, sociologist, professor, and author of rather racy novels. His final book takes up the Catholic situation in Chicago, and in today's edition of Sightings Greeley's colleague at the University of Chicago and long-time friend Martin Marty takes up the issues raised by this locally focused book, which suggests that there is good news for Catholics, but maybe not for the bishops!

***********************************

Sightings 12/20/2010

Andrew Greeley’s Chicago Catholics

- Martin E. Marty

Father Andrew Greeley, friend, neighbor, sociologist, novelist, youngster—we were born on the same day, but he arrived three hours later—has published over 150 works of fiction and non-fiction. Chicago Catholics and the Struggles within Their Churchis his final book. Final, that is, because two years ago he suffered a brain injury, after the manuscript was well along. Colleagues brought the materials together, but insist that it is “Andy’s book,” and anyone who has read him and reads this will recognize the stamp: he honors some friends, picks some fights with others, and loves to present data which many will find provocative, controversial, and slanted counter-intuitively.

While the Pope and the bishops, with most of whom he is out of patience, make global news, Greeley has engaged in survey work which assures that he has his feet on the ground. His regard for the Catholic people—whom he thinks the hierarchs overlook—is evident. His writing occupies only sixty-five pages; the rest of the book is made up of appendixes: the Survey Questionnaires, revealing “Interviews in Depth,” and “Transcripts.” If that sounds boring, his opening but summary statements startle.

Yes, he insists, 25 percent of the people in the sample have left the Church, but not for the reasons mass media give. The Church neglects the young, but they are more attached to it than were those in the past (I keep my fingers crossed on that one). “Four-fifths of Chicago Catholics approve of the pope, the Cardinal, and their pastor.” Note that bishops are not included in that list. The lay people make up their own minds about the Church: “With astonishing ease, Chicago Catholics have separated what God demands of them and what the Church expects of them.” After the papal encyclical banning birth control back in 1968, Greeley first foresaw them heading for the exit doors in disappointment and disgust. Many did. Most do not argue about the teachings which do not square with their experience, their life in community, and what they consider to be the Catholic story. They simply ignore what the bishops declare, and bond with each other, enjoying what appeals to them in Catholicism.

Not that all is well with Chicago Catholics. “Very few young people plan to be a priest or a nun. Cafeteria Catholicism divides the Catholic population into two groups. Catholic schools are closing. Many dispense themselves from Sunday Mass because they get nothing out of it, because it is dull, tedious, and BORING!”

It wouldn’t be part of Greeley’s testament if it did not include his prediction about the reception of his survey findings and conclusions: “Both the left, which thinks Chicago Catholics should be more resentful of their leadership, and the right, which thinks that Catholics are more orthodox—or should be—on sexual issues, will try to cast doubts on the study.” He defends the survey methods and justifies the choice of Chicago, with which he has a love affair, for his sampling. And it wouldn’t be Greeley if it did not include lines like this: “The current bench of bishops is terrified of research which, because the men sitting on the bench (most of whom should have been left back in the locker room) have learned to expect nothing but bad news from research. . . It does not matter that much of the research reports good news.” The bad news of the last two years is Greeley’s debilitating injury. The good news appears along with mixed data in what he found and for what he argues in this book and, better yet, that the book could appear at all.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Mark 11:1-11 (John 12:12-16) New Revised Standard Version11 When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples 2 and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. 3 If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’” 4 They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, 5 some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” 6 They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it. 7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. 9 Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting,“Hosan…

John 15:9-17 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. 12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants[a] any longer, because the servant[b] does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one …

I had not heard of the Religious Sovereign Movement that apparently is spreading across the country. It is an attempt to overturn our legal system or at least turn it on its head. As I read this exposition of the movement where all citizens become lawyers (as opposed to priests), interpreting laws as they see fit, I'm led to think of the way we are as a nation as a whole pushing individualism to its extremes. What binds us together I wonder? Anyway, take a look at this essay from the University of Chicago Divinity School and Martin Marty Center offered up by Spencer Dew and his student Jamie Wright.

God's Law: Universal Truth According to Religious Sovereign Citizens

By SPENCER DEW and JAMIE WRIGHT OCT 15, 2015
Credit: Justin Deschamps, aka An Agent for Consciousness Evolution / Stillness in the Storm blog In May of last year, police in Madison County, Tennessee, made a traffic stop of a kind that has been increasingly common in recent years. Officers pulled over a car with …

I am a Disciples of Christ pastor, theologian, community activist, historian, teacher. I'm a graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary with a M.Div. and a Ph.D. in Historical Theology. I'm the author of a number of books including
Out of the Office: A Theology of Ministry (Energion, 2017), Marriage in Interesting Times (Energion, 2016), and Freedom in Covenant (Wipf and Stock, 2015).